Sequim Gazette Editorial and Letters to the Editor
County bridges both a river and a huge challenge
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Clallam County officials and a platoon of state and tribal dignitaries opened the new Elwha River Road Bridge on Friday with a fair amount of hoopla.
The size of the celebration was surprising in itself. The county usually avoids congratulating itself, keeping to a Scandinavian-American reticence to "get above itself."
This party at the river was appropriate, though, for both the jaw-dropping beauty of the Elwha River canyon crossing and the resolve the county showed to build it.
The old rickety one-lane bridge long had been scheduled for replacement, and a citizens advisory board had ensured the new span would preserve breathtaking views up and down the Elwha.
The Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in August 2007 sent Washington state transportation officials scurrying around the state to inspect its bridges. Only one was deemed unsafe enough to close immediately:
The Elwha River Road Bridge.
That only accelerated the inevitable, but when Clallam County commissioners opened the bids to construct the replacement, they were stunned by a low price that was $6 million over their estimates.
What followed among county Public Works Department employees was a search for funds that was almost as innovative as transportation engineer Rich James's plans for a pedestrian walkway slung under the bridge's vehicle deck.
The state, chivvied by 24th District legislators Lynn Kessler, Kevin Van De Wege and Jim Hargrove, appropriated
$2 million for the project.
Federal funds flow in
The National Park Service kicked in another $1.8 million, seeing that the access road to the bridge site would help Olympic National Park remove the two Elwha dams upriver.
The county's congressional delegation - Sens. Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Rep. Norm Dicks - added $600,000.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, stewards of the river since time immemorial, successfully lobbied the Bureau of Indian Affairs for $1.5 million because the road links the two housing sections of the tribal reservation.
Finally, the state Recreation and Conservation Office chipped in $1 million.
The last contribution was significant as an illustration of Clallam County's favored position with state agencies. The RCO gives Clallam projects such as the Olympic Discovery Trail several times the money per capita as it gives vote-rich King County.
That could be because there's a lot of pristine territory to access here, whereas only so much can be done to reverse the sprawl of Pugetopolis.
However, the RCO - and several other state agencies - grants money to Clallam County because it's secure in its expectation that local officials will spend it according to their announced plans.
And that, in turn, points up another of Clallam County's virtues: Collaboration.
The Olympic Discovery Trail, for instance, was finished across the eastern county before Sequim could decide where to locate the walking/cycling/equestrian route. That's partly because of cooperation between Clallam's Public Works Department and the Peninsula Trails Coalition.
Even jail inmates get into the act. It wasn't by accident that one of the vehicles in a ceremonial parade across the Elwha River Road Bridge was a Chain Gang truck.
Clallam stays free of debt
Before the ceremony, Commissioner Mike Chapman noted that it had been accomplished without obligating the county to a single cent of debt.
And even as officials planned Friday's celebration, they were discussing how they'll build a Deer Park Road underpass of U.S. Highway 101 east of P.A. and how they'll extend the Olympic Discovery Trail farther westward.
"Local government can accomplish big things," Chapman said.
True spoken, but only when local government knuckles down and charges into challenges like a linebacker.
Notice too, that Clallam County commissioners, other elected county officials and their appointed managers conduct business without the hissing, spitting and caterwauling that accompanies Sequim City Council deliberations.
No government is perfect and Clallam County has its faults. But its primary story is one of quiet accomplishment in an atmosphere that's remarkably transparent.
So in a big way, Friday's ceremonies marked much more than the awesome - and I use that word sparingly - double-decked crossing of the Elwha River.
It celebrated Clallam County's quiet can-do approach to good government.
For this bridge across the river and the many bridges over other troubled waters:
Well done.
Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette.
The size of the celebration was surprising in itself. The county usually avoids congratulating itself, keeping to a Scandinavian-American reticence to "get above itself."
This party at the river was appropriate, though, for both the jaw-dropping beauty of the Elwha River canyon crossing and the resolve the county showed to build it.
The old rickety one-lane bridge long had been scheduled for replacement, and a citizens advisory board had ensured the new span would preserve breathtaking views up and down the Elwha.
The Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in August 2007 sent Washington state transportation officials scurrying around the state to inspect its bridges. Only one was deemed unsafe enough to close immediately:
The Elwha River Road Bridge.
That only accelerated the inevitable, but when Clallam County commissioners opened the bids to construct the replacement, they were stunned by a low price that was $6 million over their estimates.
What followed among county Public Works Department employees was a search for funds that was almost as innovative as transportation engineer Rich James's plans for a pedestrian walkway slung under the bridge's vehicle deck.
The state, chivvied by 24th District legislators Lynn Kessler, Kevin Van De Wege and Jim Hargrove, appropriated
$2 million for the project.
Federal funds flow in
The National Park Service kicked in another $1.8 million, seeing that the access road to the bridge site would help Olympic National Park remove the two Elwha dams upriver.
The county's congressional delegation - Sens. Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Rep. Norm Dicks - added $600,000.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, stewards of the river since time immemorial, successfully lobbied the Bureau of Indian Affairs for $1.5 million because the road links the two housing sections of the tribal reservation.
Finally, the state Recreation and Conservation Office chipped in $1 million.
The last contribution was significant as an illustration of Clallam County's favored position with state agencies. The RCO gives Clallam projects such as the Olympic Discovery Trail several times the money per capita as it gives vote-rich King County.
That could be because there's a lot of pristine territory to access here, whereas only so much can be done to reverse the sprawl of Pugetopolis.
However, the RCO - and several other state agencies - grants money to Clallam County because it's secure in its expectation that local officials will spend it according to their announced plans.
And that, in turn, points up another of Clallam County's virtues: Collaboration.
The Olympic Discovery Trail, for instance, was finished across the eastern county before Sequim could decide where to locate the walking/cycling/equestrian route. That's partly because of cooperation between Clallam's Public Works Department and the Peninsula Trails Coalition.
Even jail inmates get into the act. It wasn't by accident that one of the vehicles in a ceremonial parade across the Elwha River Road Bridge was a Chain Gang truck.
Clallam stays free of debt
Before the ceremony, Commissioner Mike Chapman noted that it had been accomplished without obligating the county to a single cent of debt.
And even as officials planned Friday's celebration, they were discussing how they'll build a Deer Park Road underpass of U.S. Highway 101 east of P.A. and how they'll extend the Olympic Discovery Trail farther westward.
"Local government can accomplish big things," Chapman said.
True spoken, but only when local government knuckles down and charges into challenges like a linebacker.
Notice too, that Clallam County commissioners, other elected county officials and their appointed managers conduct business without the hissing, spitting and caterwauling that accompanies Sequim City Council deliberations.
No government is perfect and Clallam County has its faults. But its primary story is one of quiet accomplishment in an atmosphere that's remarkably transparent.
So in a big way, Friday's ceremonies marked much more than the awesome - and I use that word sparingly - double-decked crossing of the Elwha River.
It celebrated Clallam County's quiet can-do approach to good government.
For this bridge across the river and the many bridges over other troubled waters:
Well done.
Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette.
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